Switch

Abstract: This invention provides a switch adapted to close upon pressing of a movable piece (13) initially in open position by an actuator (3). The actuator is made of a material which melts at a predetermined temperature such that the switch opens when melting of the actuator (3) by the heat generated on flow of an overcurrent to the movable piece (13) allows the movable piece (13) to return to its initial position. The invention further provides a switch of the type that a movable piece (13) closes or opens the switch according to movement of an actuator (3). The movable piece (13) being made of a material which fuses at a predetermined temperature such that the switch opens upon fusion of the movable piece (13) by the heat generated on flow of an overcurrent to the movable piece (13).

Description: FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a novel switch suitable for use as a window regulator switch, sunroof switch or the like. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION For the overcurrent protection of direct-off type switches, it is common practice to employ a PCB pattern fuse or a built-in overcurrent protective device, or, in the case of bus bar type switches, to utilize the rising of a movable piece on melting of a resin member supporting it to cause an OFF fault. For the overcurrent protection of microswitches, the only available provision is either the use of a PCB pattern fuse or a built-in overcurrent protective device. However, the PCB pattern fuse is not fully reliable because pattern width control during manufacture is so difficult that a large variation in functional quality is inevitable. On the other hand, the overcurrent protective device is not only expensive but adds to the bulk of the switch. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The object of this invention is to provide a novel switch which is simple in construction, does not require any modification of its basic components, and yet provides effective overcurrent protection without involving no major capital expenditure or addition of parts. In the German Utility Model DE-U-87 16 968.1 a switch is disclosed having a movable piece and a miniature fuse embodied as a bridging circuit to said switch. A similar switching device is known from GB-A-2 167 238. EP-A-0 285 044 discloses a temperature use for an electrical apparatus having a melting piece as a thermal actuator which melts at a predetermined temperature such that the electrical connection is opened when melting of the actuator allows a contact element to move. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates, in one aspect, to a switch adapted to close upon pressing of a movable piece initially in open position by an actuator characterized in that the switch opens when melting of said actuator by the heat generated on flow of an overcurrent to said movable piece allows said movable piece to return to its initial position. This invention relates, in another aspect, to a switch adapted to close upon pressing of a movable piece initially in open position by an actuator characterized in that the switch is provided with a first means which opens the switch when melting of said actuator by the heat generated by flow of an overcurrent to said movable piece allows said movable piece to return to its initial position and a second means which opens the switch upon fusion of said movable piece by the heat generated on flow of an overcurrent to said movable piece. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a disassembled perspective view of a switch according to this invention; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the switch; Fig. 3 is a front view of the switch; Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 (1) is a plan view of a movable piece and (2) is a front view of the same; Fig. 6 (1) is a plan view of an actuator, (2) is a side view of the same, and (3) is a front view of the same; Fig. 7 is a schematic view showing the 'close' state of the switch according to this invention; Fig. 8 is a schematic view showing the melting of the actuator by an overcurrent in the same switch; Fig. 9 is a schematic view showing the fusion of the movable piece on flow of an overcurrent in the same switch; Fig. 10 is a diagram showing the relationship between current value and melt/fusion time of the actuator/movable piece. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The preferred embodiments of this invention are now described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 is a disassembled perspective view of the switch according to this invention; Fig. 2 is a plan view of said switch; Fig. 3 is a front view of the same switch; and Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A of Fig. 4. The switch according to this invention comprises a base 1, a cover 2, an actuator 3 and a slider 4. The base 1 has a pair of switching mechanisms 5 at both sides. Each switching mechanism 5 has a common terminal 6, a first stationary terminal 7 and a second stationary terminal 8, all of which are built in said base 1. A first stationary contact 9 and a second stationary contact 10 are rigidly fixed to said first stationary terminal 7 and said second stationary terminal 8, respectively, and the first stationary contact 9 and second stationary terminal 10 are disposed one above the other and in mutually opposed relation. The common terminal 6 is formed with an anchor portion 11 and a spring retaining portion 12, and a movable piece 13 is set in position on said common terminal 6. This movable piece 13 is an element punched out from a metallic spring material as best shown in Fig. 5 (1) and (2). Thus, the movable piece 13 is formed with an engaging portion 14 at the rear end, an actuator contacting portion 15 in the center and a spring portion 16 close to the front and a movable contact 17 is fixed to the front end of said movable piece 13. As the movable piece 13 is set in position on said common terminal 6, the engaging portion 14 of the movable piece 13 engages said anchor member 11 and the front end of said spring portion 16 engages said spring retaining portion 12. Moreover, said movable contact 17 is situated between the two stationary contacts 9, 10 in such a manner that, in neutral state, said movable contact 17 mates with said stationary contact 9. The front, rear and right-hand sides of said base 1 are respectively formed with engaging portions 18, each of which has an engaging channel 19 and an engaging projection 20 extending from said channel 19. The cover 2 has a surface 2a which is formed with a pair of actuator slots 21 and further with a guide rail 22 rising along each of its front and rear edges. The cover 2 is further formed with an engaging leg 23 at each of its front, rear and right-hand sides. Each of these engaging legs 23 has an engaging hole 24. The actuator 3 may for example be an element molded from a polybutyrene terephthalate (PBT) - 30% glass bead compound. As illustrated in Fig. 6 (1), (2) and (3), this actuator 3 includes a body 25 which is formed with a groove 26 extending throughout its length in the center of its bottom side and a pair of pressor parts 27 on both sides of said groove 26. The body has stoppers 28 on both sides of each pressor part 27 and the end of the pressor part 27 is configured in the form of a hill. Furthermore, an apical part 25a of said body 25 is configured to present an accurate form in transverse elevation and is centrally formed with a groove 29 extending through its length. The slider 4 is configured in the form of a slab or plate and, as shown in Fig. 4, its bottom is formed with an actuator ON surface portion 35, an actuator OFF surface portion 30 and a stopper portion 31, and a transition portion 32 between said actuator ON surface portion 35 and actuator OFF surface portion 30 is formed to present a smoothly inclined surface. Furthermore, said slider 4 is formed with a guide 33 along each of its front and rear edges and with a knob 34 at its top. The actuator 3 is inserted, from inside, into the actuator slots 21 of said cover 2 and the cover 2 is then set on the base 1. Thus, the engaging legs 23 of said cover 2 are passed into the engaging channels 19 of said base 1 and the engaging projections 20 extending from the channels 19 are set in the engaging holes 24 in the corresponding legs 23 so as to fix the cover 2 rigidly to the base 1. In this condition, the pressor parts 27 of said actuator 3 contact the actuator contacting portion 15 of said movable piece 13 and the body 25 of said actuator 3 projects upwards beyond the upper surface of the cover 2. Then, the guides 33 of the slider 4 are engaged with the guide rails 22 of the cover 2. In this arrangement, the slider 4 is free to move in the transverse direction and the apex 25a of the body 25 of said actuator 3 is in slidable contact with the actuator OFF surface portion 30 of the slider 4. The bottom of said base 1 is fitted with a bottom cover 35. The actuator 3 is made of PBT - 30% glass bead in this embodiment and its thermal deformation temperature is 190°C. The actuator melt mode in this case is shown in Fig. 10. Thus, in the current range of 40A - 64A, the melting time is 50 sec - 18 sec and the melting temperature is about 200°C - 240°C. On the other hand, the movable piece 13 is made of C1720-HM (berrylium-copper alloy) and gold-plated and its melting temperature is 865°C. The movable piece melt mode is shown in Fig. 10. In the current value range of 65A - 120A, the melting time range is not greater than 20 sec. Therefore, the actuator 3 withstands the heat encountered in its ordinary service but melts on flow of an overcurrent short of the fusion of said movable piece (material: C1720-HM). The action of the switch of the above construction is now explained. When the slider 4 is situated in neutral position as illustrated in Fig. 4, the apex 25a of the body 25 of said actuator 3 slidably contacts the actuator OFF surface portion 30 of the slider 4 and the movable contact 17 of the movable piece 13 of the switching mechanism 5 is in contact with the second stationary contact 10. Thus, the switch is in 'Open' position. Then, as the slider 4 is moved to the left as illustrated in Fig. 7, the apex 25a of the body 25 of said actuator 3 slidably contacts the actuator ON surface 35 of the slider 4, whereupon the actuator 3 is displaced towards the movable piece 13 to press the latter 13 so that the movable contact 17 of the movable piece 13 contacts the first stationary contact 9. Thus, the switch is brought into 'Closed' state. As mentioned above, the actuator 3 is made of PBT-30% glass beads and while it withstands ordinary heat, it melts on flow of an overcurrent short of the fusion of said movable piece 13. Therefore, when an overcurrent short of the fusion of movable piece 13 flows, the actuator 3 melts to lose its restraint on the movable piece 13. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 8, the movable piece 13 is reset by the biasing force of the spring member 16 so that the movable contact 17 departs from the first stationary contact 9 and contacts the second stationary contact 10, thus causing the switch to open. As mentioned above, the bottom of the body 25 of said actuator 3 is centrally formed with a longitudial groove 26 extending its length and the portions of the body 25 on both sides of this groove serve as pressor parts 27 contacting the movable piece 13. Therefore, the melt volume is as much decreased and the accordingly increased pressure from the movable piece 13 per unit area accelerates the melting of the actuator 3. Moreover, the actuator 3 is light in weight. The movable piece 13, common terminal 6 and stationary terminals 7, 8 are gold-plated, and by selecting the thickness of the Ag plating layer so that the generation of heat in the movable piece 13 on flow of an overcurrent will be increased, the melting of said actuator 3 can be hastened. In the above embodiment, before smoking or ignition takes place, the actuator 3 is melted and the movable piece 13 under restraint of the actuator 3 returns to its initial position to cause an OFF fault, so that troubles due to an overcurrent can be arrested by changing the actuator 3 without replacing the basic components of the microswitch. It can be arranged, in this invention, that, as shown in Fig. 9, the movable piece 13 is fused by the heat generated on flow of an overcurrent. The actuator 3 is made of a thermoplastic material reinforced with glass beads and melts on flow of an overcurrent short of fusion of the movable piece as mentioned above but even if the actuator 3 melts on flow of such an overcurrent, there is a certain lag time in the reversal of the movable piece 13 due to its stroke and in the event of no switch-off, the movable piece is fused to cause an OFF fault, thus insuring an effective overcurrent protection.

Claims: A switch adapted to close upon pressing of a movable piece (13) initially in open position by an actuator (3), wherein said actuator (3) being made of a material which melts at a predetermined temperature such that the switch opens when melting of said actuator (3) allows said movable piece (13) to return to its initial position, characterized in that said actuator (3) is positioned such that the melting of said actuator (3) is caused by the heat generated on flow of an overcurrent to said movable piece (13). A switch in accordance to claim 1, characterized by a first means (16) which opens the switch when melting of said actuator (3) by said heat generated by said flow of said overcurrent to said movable piece (13) allows said movable piece (13) to return to said initial position and a second means which opens the switch upon fusion of said movable piece (13) by the heat generated on flow of an overcurrent to said movable piece (13).

Inventors: KEIICHI NAGAYAMA, MASAMI NOGUCHI, TAKAHIRO SAKAKINO, KEIICHI, NAGAYAMA, MASAMI, NOGUCHI, TAKAHIRO, SAKAKINO, Keiichi, Nagayama, Omrons Meitou-Dormitory-327
Applicants: OMRON TATEISI ELECTRONICS CO, OMRON CORPORATION
Application year: 1994
Main classification: H01H9
IPC codes: H01H9, H01H71, H01H37, H01H85, H01H15